I bought How the Mighty Are Fallen (1996) because I kind of love the doofy tarrasque in Nick Jainschigg’s cover art. I also like how quietly violent it is. It took me a while to notice the guy flying through the air in the background or the fact that the other guy is missing his whole right arm.

The logo on the bottom says Arcane Age, and I guess there is a box set dedicated to the empire of Netheril before the fall that is a Forgotten Realms sub-setting. This is apparently the first supplement for it and it tells the story…of the fall. I get why that was interesting, but I would have thought they’d explore the setting a little longer?

Anyway, the party can either be native Netherese, or they can be time travelers and they get embroiled in a bunch of problems. Some guy wants them to find his dead wife’s body. The greatest mage who ever lived wants them to get some spell components for him (the pituitary gland of a tarrasque and the gizzard of a gold dragon, you know, no biggie, but also maybe do your own grocery shopping, bro). There are some orcs. There’s a lichlord with the greatest army of the undead ever assembled. It all feels weirdly low stakes. And I don’t understand the ending. The spell components are supposed to be for the spell Karsus casts to become a god, but for some reason, here, he hurls it at the lichlord’s undead army battery thing? The end result — the temporary removal of magic and the fall of Netheril’s floating magic cities — is the same, I just don’t understand what Karsus was doing. I probably don’t care, either, though, so let’s move on.

Ned Dameron did the interiors, and they’re good, I like Ned’s work. But I don’t understand why the art director requested these specific pieces. There are more interesting things in the adventure than a lady in a coffin and a lady standing in the woods and ranks of undead soldiers. Weird.